In general, a primary function of a fiber optic transmitter is to convert an electrical digital input signal to an optical digital output signal, hence, the fiber optic transmitter is sometimes referred to as an electrical/optical converter. In common practice, the digital electrical data is amplified by a driver, which is adapted to modulate the optical transmitter. For an externally modulated transmitter, such as a Lithium Niobate transmitter, the driver typically modulates the amplitude of the signal by changing the refractive index of the transmitter material (e.g., Lithium Niobate), which acts as an electro-optical switch. For a transmitter based on a directly modulated laser, the driver typically modulates the bias current of a laser (e.g., a DFB laser).
A high quality transmitter must produce a high quality optical signal (i) at its output, and (ii) after propagation through dispersive fiber. The quality of the transmitter output is generally measured qualitatively in terms of a so-called “eye diagram”, which is a clocked overlap of the amplitude of a random bit pattern in time, and quantitatively by the bit error rate.
A system for long-reach lightwave data transmission through optical fiber has been disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/289,944, filed Nov. 6, 2002 by Daniel Mahgerefteh et al. for POWER SOURCE FOR A DISPERSION COMPENSATION FIBER OPTIC SYSTEM, which patent application is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Azna LLC of Wilmington, Mass. sometimes refers to the transmitter apparatus of this patent application as a Chirp Managed Laser (CML™). In this system, a frequency modulated (FM) source is followed by an optical discriminator, also sometimes referred to as an optical spectrum reshaper (OSR), which converts frequency modulation into a substantially amplitude modulated (AM) signal and partially compensates for the dispersion in the transmission fiber. This is a directly modulated laser based transmitter, so that the driver modulates the current to the laser.
Also, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/933,081, filed Sep. 2, 2004 by Daniel Mahgerefteh et al. for METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING A SIGNAL USING THERMAL CHIRP MANAGEMENT OF A DIRECTLY MODULATED TRANSMITTER, which patent application is hereby incorporated herein by reference, a system is disclosed for improving the optical eye quality and the bit error rate performance of the CML™ laser by using the laser driver to adjust the duty cycle of the input electrical signal.
An object of the present invention is to further improve the eye quality and the bit error rate of the CML™ system.